Orientation of a rigid body is generally calculated by using Euler angles, which was first introduced by Leonhard Euler. In order to describe a particular orientation/position of a rigid body in 3-dimensional medium parameters along the X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis are required.
By using these parameters or elemental rotations, any orientation of the object may be determined. The elemental rotations can either occur about the axes of the fixed co-ordinate system, which is initially aligned with the fixed one, and the same modification of the orientation occurs after each elemental rotation. These kinds of rotations are also called as intrinsic rotations. These imaginary rotating co-ordinate systems may be imagined to be rigidly attached to a rigid body. There is also a possibility of two different rotation axes such as intrinsic and extrinsic.
Conventionally, Euler angles were used to represent both the position and orientation of the rigid body. A local co-ordinate system having axes denoted by x, y and z which constitute the axes of frame, and another co-ordinate system X, Y and Z which constitute the axes of the rotated frame. By using these co-ordinates both position and orientation of the rigid body can be determined wherein, the reference orientation can be imagined to be a first orientation from which the frame virtually rotates to reach its actual orientation.
Many devices such as but not limiting to gyroscopes, gimbal etc., are used in applications such as but not limiting to vehicles and aircrafts to determine the pitch, roll and yaw axes. This plays a role in orienting and positioning the vehicle/aircraft and also aids in maneuverability. A gyroscope works on the principle of angular momentum which basically is the amount of rotation that an object may have, taking into account of mass and shape of the object. In simple words it is the vector quantity that represents the product of a body's rotational inertia and rotational velocity about a particular axis.
Gyroscopes are of different types based on the different operating principles on which they adapt to. Generally, gyroscopes such as the electronic, microchip-packaged MEMS gyroscope devices found in consumer electronic devices, solid-state ring lasers, fibre optic gyroscopes, and the extremely sensitive quantum gyroscope are known in the art. Their applications range from a variety of devices such as electronic gadgets to vehicles such as cars, ships and aircrafts.
One of the major disadvantage of the gyroscope is its pan and tilt rotation speed. When the gyro is subjected to tilt and pan above the prescribed limit, the gyro fails to determine the orientation, this is seen in many of the electronic gadgets. However, not all gyros and gimbal's employed in electronic devices and vehicles have aforesaid disadvantages and ones which don't have these flaws are very expensive to manufacture. Secondly, the gyroscopes and gimbals have complex result obtaining techniques, and as already mentioned are very expensive to manufacture.
In light of foregoing discussion, there is a need to develop an orientation indicating device which can determine the orientation of an object about pitch, roll and yaw axes, to overcome the limitations stated above.